How Can I Help Solve Depression?

Depression is a rising mental illness in today’s world and according to recent World Health Organization’s statistics 300 million people around the globe are subject to depression! Therefore, we should find a solution to this and help those who are facing it. You can help those suffering from depression by being empathetic to their cause, by paying them the attention they crave rather than watching them spend their money on expensive therapists, who at the end of the day would tell every patient the same thing every time: by suggesting that they invest their efforts in writing a diary and constantly reminding themselves ‘I can’ and though, this might be effective on certain patients, it does not work on everyone.

Hence, this simple and free-of-cost therapy can be done by ordinary people trying to help their family or friends through this illness.

Usually, people going through this tough time just need someone to talk to and for someone to be their friend. They would just want to hear the words ‘it will be okay’. The key to this therapy is that, you not only understand what that person has been through but, also understand the general thoughts going through a depression patient’s mind. Usually they feel like they just cannot go on any longer, that they are not strong enough and are tired of pretending to be stronger than they actually are. It is important to note that it takes a lot in life to push someone to the depths of depression and you should also understand that what you think might be minor might be the most serious storm in someone else’s life.

After this, you should try to grasp a hold of their true personality. This can be done by asking a few simple questions such as: place them in various situations to see if they are a person who likes to be around people or someone who enjoys their own solitude. This can be achieved by telling them to imagine themselves in the middle of a crowded coffee shop or a stadium and on the contrary, place them in their room, alone, with their favorite pass time activity.

Man is watching a show, view from the crowd

Next, show them their safe haven, a place where they feel the safest and most secure. This can be done by telling them to play around with their imagination and conjure a place which brings around feelings of serenity- let their imagination run wild as Albert Einstein predicated:

‘Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’

After they have successfully unlocked their safe zone tell them to constantly remind themselves of this place when they feel depressed.

After these tasks have been done, we move towards the final phase of our therapy; ask them two questions in the respected order: what is your happiest memory? What is your saddest memory? Finally, try to solve the taboo behind their most melancholic memory and show them the half full side of the glass by reminding them of their golden and simple times.

Conclusively, it is true that depression is a mental illness and to some it may not seem justified, but they should realize how tough it is for one person to keep fighting their fate and being humans, we have our limits so at times people just need a hand to get up because they simply cannot support themselves. So yes, everyone should be their own superhero but, it is important to know that every superhero too has a mentor to guide them through trying times. Therefore, you can be someone’s guiding light in their dark times by reminding them to turn the lights back on.

Abeer is a student with keen interest in the sciences, global perspective, politico-economics and the study of how the human mind works. In her free time she indulges in poetry and fiction writing. Her micro goal is to publish a book in the near future.